Noticing the magic circles’ glow intensifying, we stood back-to-back facing the waterfalls. Sandwiched between the waterfalls materializing on the walls, in the space that had now become a corridor of water, we shook our heads and stood firm, raising the magic power within our bodies in preparation for what came next.
Several of the magic circles flickered, and a swarm of fish suddenly surfaced, their upper bodies breaking the water. Sharp teeth peeked from their mouths... They looked familiar?
“It’s a new species of fish-type magical beast that spreads its fins like wings to fly through the deep sea and swim at high speeds,” the pope explained. “I found it while constructing a fish tank for certain creatures of the deep sea. It seemed useful for research, so I decided to keep it.”
“A new species?” Regardless of the pope’s magic, I felt faint.
“Mihail...?” Regulus asked, but his voice was growing distant and hazy, replaced by phantom sounds.
“Tonight’s dinner is courtesy of Lag! A sashimi platter of flying fish! If you dislike raw fish, please dip it in the broth in that pot over there and enjoy it with our special dressing, shabu-shabu style!” It was an auditory hallucination of something I’d heard during some dinner last week. I’d seen that fish in the dish my sister had served! That day, she’d invited me over, saying she’d gotten her hands on some rare monster meat. And next to the raw fish fillet, she’d placed the fish’s head and wings—this fish’s head and wings—as garnish. Honestly, I didn’t get the point of that part.
Whoever supplied my sister with that undiscovered monster as ingredients better show themselves! Though I must say, both the sashimi and the shabu-shabu were delicious! I felt my dulled thoughts snap back a little with the thought. What kind of synergy effect was this?!
“Now, attack!” commanded the pope. He was controlling them?! A swarm of slender bodies as long as an arm appeared at once. They spread their wings like locusts or cicadas and flew at high speed, moving between the magic circles on either side, and bared their sharp teeth, ready to bite and tear.
My sister had warned me about this fish’s mode of attack. I cast two earth-element spells parallel to the waterway, creating walls spanning the width and height of the waterfall. Earth magic wasn’t my specialty, but I could manage this much.
“Well, good judgment. And you deflected my charm?” The pope waved his hand, and particles glowing aqua blue shot from it, causing the walls to crumble away. Had he saturated them with water to weaken them?
As the walls collapsed, the dive-bombing flying fish scattered everywhere. If I’d conjured walls only in front of us, I knew these fish would have flown through the air, changed course, and attacked. Who could have known my sister’s intel would come in handy like this?
“Mihail, surely Lady Robur didn’t...” Regulus seemed to have realized what had happened: Laviange had deliciously consumed these fish.
“Exactly. My sister would love this.”
“Keeping it all to yourself, Mihail? I’ll remember that.”
I did have the selfish desire to eat them again, but I had told him out of a sense of goodwill, at least a little. It seemed I’d earned the grudge of a lovesick fool, but that was an inevitability.
“Wait, why is the prince stuffing them into his bag?!” the pope exclaimed.
“Interfere and I’ll kill you.”
“Sudden murderous intent?! I don’t understand!”
Ah, right. The pope had cast a charm spell on us. That explained it. But even knowing it was a rare charm that relied on an innate ability, the sheer shock at my sister’s nonsense made the wonder of it all fade.
The pope was bewildered by the sight of the enthusiasm, and the murderous intent, on the face of the country’s first prince, who had eagerly started stuffing as many fish as possible into his magic bag. I sympathized, but right now, I’d prefer he be left alone.
The magic bag was going to start stinking, but that first-love fool probably wouldn’t care.
But my wish was in vain—Jabi interrupted Regulus’s fish harvest.
“How boring,” she said, standing motionless as crimson-black particles were released toward the fish.
“Hey!” A low growl suddenly came from beside me. Looking over, I saw that the fish Regulus had been crouching to pick up was rotting.
Before the stench could spread, I set it ablaze with magic. I’d have preferred to reduce it to ash instantly, but magic was stubbornly difficult to wield here. Likely, some sort of spell had been cast over this entire space, hindering magic activation.
“Aren’t you going to get serious soon?” Jabi’s voice shifted to one of displeasure. The crimson-black mist that enveloped her drifted gently, moving toward the pope.
“There’s no need to rush,” the pope told her. “Ah, you unstable being—you couldn’t carelessly involve yourself with humans, could you? Perhaps because you were revived with the princess’s hair and Sriarde’s body, you especially wanted to keep your distance from royalty. Very well. I’ll bring out a special something just for you.” He chuckled softly before suddenly unleashing particles of deepening pink and crimson-black light at us all at once.
Though he couldn’t see it with his eyes, the lovestruck fool sensed something and tried to cast a barrier, but he failed. Even creating a shield was difficult here; a barrier seemed even harder. I shielded him from behind, taking a massive hit from the light particles.
“Mihail!” he cried.
“Calm down. I merely absorbed enchantment magic.” As my vision swayed and distorted, a fierce affection for the pope welled up inside me. I desperately fought to suppress it. The same enchantment magic was probably accumulating in Regulus’s body, clouding his judgment and robbing him of his composure.
“Regulus... Set up the smallest...barrier... Wait... What...?” As I struggled to hold myself up, shielding myself from the particles and somehow managing to speak, a colored yet translucent scene overlapped the dim, tangible reality before my eyes. Unconsciously, I let out a stunned, speechless gasp.
“Lily. Your name. It must be inconvenient not having one. My seal is a white lycoris. Your hair color resembles that flower, so how about Lily?” A girl appeared before my eyes, making an incongruous proposal. Her expression, framed by hair the color of a white peach tinged with silver, gave off a cold, inorganic air.
She was looking at the area around my knees as she spoke. Her eyes were an indigo blue I knew well. The difference was the iris. More precisely, there was a golden ring—said to have been possessed by ancient royalty—along the outer edge of her iris.
Could this girl be...
The name that flashed through my mind was the infamous Princess Beljeanne, an unmatched villainess. Though of royal blood, she had possessed little magical talent and a personality marked by arrogance and conceit. She had been notorious for summoning a demon in a fit of fierce jealousy over having her fiancé stolen from her.
Yet the girl before me was dressed in simple, worn clothes, like those of a commoner, a far cry from her infamous reputation.
And...white lycoris...?
“H-Hey, Mihail! Snap out of it!”
The sensation of being violently shaken jolted me awake. What was all that?
I looked around. The girl was gone. I was inside the barrier Regulus had set up, just as I’d advised.
“Oh dear, you weren’t completely charmed this time either,” the pope remarked. “But you’re gradually being corrupted. It’s only a matter of time.” As he spoke, the countless magic circles on the left waterfall fused together, forming one large array.
First to emerge were thick, writhing tentacle-like legs with suction cups. Their numbers grew, followed by a human torso, then a chest... Finally the entire upper body appeared, writhing as it came into view.
The lower half, I surmised, belonged to the creature my sister called an octopus. Months ago, she’d served it for breakfast, saying, “How about takoyaki for breakfast?” The octopus meat had been inside those odd, ball-shaped dough pieces. It had been delicious.
But the upper body looked nothing like the one my sister had set aside, saying that the octopus head would be cooked separately later.